Free Republic

<p>Jessica Lynch has become a motivational speaker.</p> <p>The slight blonde who went from broken prisoner of war and national hero to an instant and controversial celebrity has taken on a new public identity, offering her story in a presentation titled "Survival is a Choice."</p>

The story of PFC Jessica Lynch in Iraq has revived the long dormant custom of training non-combat troops to defend themselves in battle. This was because, for the first time in many years, American army non-combat troops found themselves under fire during the Iraq campaign. Over the last twenty years, combat training for non-combat army troops has declined. Since 1978, U.S. Army basic training for men and women has been combined. This has led to a steady lowering of basic training standards so that the women can keep up. When basic training was all-male, it was pretty rugged, the idea...

<p>September 5, 2003 -- The father of a soldier killed in the ambush in Iraq that Pvt. Jessica Lynch survived is furious she's getting a $1 million book deal.</p> <p>"I don't have a problem about her writing about her life, but when it involves not only my son, but of the others injured, wounded or killed, why should one person make money over the deaths of other people?" said Randy Kiehl, the father of Army Spc. James Kiehl, who was killed in action.</p>

Jessica Lynch Biography Hits Racks In November'I Am a Soldier, Too' To Be Written by Bragg By Linton WeeksWashington Post Staff WriterTuesday, September 2, 2003; Page C01 "I Am a Soldier, Too: The Jessica Lynch Story" will go on sale in November at bookstores, discount warehouses, truck stops, gift shops, grocery stores, pharmacies, PXs and just about everywhere else across America. The authorized biography will be written by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Rick Bragg and published by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House. Sonny Mehta, Knopf's president, will make the official announcement today. "Jessica Lynch has captured the hearts...

Slain Soldier's Father Criticizes Lynch's Book Deal Kiehl Says Lynch Is 'A Profiteer' POSTED: 9:02 AM CDT September 4, 2003 COMFORT, Texas -- The father of a Comfort soldier killed in an ambush in Iraq that former prisoner of war Jessica Lynch survived said that Lynch's million-dollar book deal will taint the memory of the soldiers killed in the ambush. "Pretty severe, isn't it?" Randy Kiehl (pictured, left), the father of Army Spc. James Kiehl, said in an exclusive interview with KSAT 12 News Wednesday from his home in Comfort. "That she makes money off the death of my...

NEW YORK (AP) — Jessica Lynch, the former prisoner of war whose capture and rescue from an Iraqi hospital made her a national hero, has agreed to a $1 million book deal with publisher Alfred A. Knopf. "Many folks have written, expressing their support for me and for the thousands of other soldiers who serve their country," Lynch said in a statement issued Tuesday by Knopf. "I feel I owe them all this story, which will be about more than a girl going off to war and fighting alongside her fellow soldiers. It will be a story about growing up...